from the oops dept

There continues to be a flurry of activity and motions and such around the Apple/Samsung patent fight, and we're avoiding most of the play-by-play until something "big" happens. But today there was an interesting ruling from the appeals court, concerning the original injunction that Judge Lucy Koh issued, blocking Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 device (which is already a bit obsolete anyway). She had issued that injunction earlier in the case, before the jury ruled, and that actually has presented something of a problem. Among the patents that the jury said Samsung did not infringe was the one that Koh relied on to issue her injunction. Given that, the appeals court has sent the injunction back to Koh to reconsider. Of course, all this really reinforces is the ridiculousness of the patent system today: a judge can assume that an entire product line can be blocked because it's infringing on a particular patent... only to have a jury (which in this case clearly mostly sided with Apple anyway) decide that the patent didn't apply. When a system comes up with such arbitrary results, it's a sign that the system itself is broken.

Wow....

You know, people would be up in arms if they found that the guy in charge of nuclear security knew nothing about nuclear power plants or bombs. This is just as important. You would swear this article belonged on the onion.

Re:

strange how the US is just about the only place that Apple is winning these ridiculous patent suits. considering how, yet again Apple has infringed on another's patent (the clock app), isn't it about time it stopped all this suing bull shit and just went out into the market and competed with other companies regardless of which ones? i still reckon the only reason it stopped Samsung in the US when it did was to try to give itself no competition when the iphone5 came out. if i wanted a Samsung, i would've bought a Samsung. if i had wanted an iphone, i would've bought an iphone. taking away my right of choice for such selfish reasons and fear of another product selling more, because it's better, wont change my mind. i would wait and get what i wanted when i could. and look at all the problems, as usual, with the new Apple product. released too early, as usual, and still not tested fully so still riddled with bugs that the customer has to put up with until Apple decide to rectify them

Make it so you can get an injunction for an alleged patent violation like now, but if the person is found not guilty of that violation then YOU have to pay them massive damages/fines (equivalent to the damages you would have won if you had succeeded in court) for the harm & lost sales you inflicted on them with a bogus injunction.

If a patent troll isn't willing to put their money where their mouth is then they shouldn't be asking for injunctions before a court has ruled on if the patent was even violated.

Re:

Fuck Samsung and Apple both if they spent half as much time actually making/inventing good products as they do in court we might see some really nice software and hardware come along.

I agree with you when it comes to Apple here...unfortunately for Samsung, they kinda had this whole thing foisted upon them. They didn't sue Apple until after Apple sued them (Counter-suit.) I am sure Samsung would be much happier not being in the game and just out making phones.

Just Say No

Yup, it's time to get rid of the patent system.

Patents are a privilege, not a Right. Patents exist to encourage innovation. Clearly, they are not. It's time to get rid of them.

Intellectual property is an oxymoron. Ideas belong to the commons. The law even says so. Patents are a violation of this. But they were suppose to make things better despite the violation of the peoples' Right to ideas. They do not. It's time to get rid of them.

And then, by the time all of this is settled and they realize barring Samsung from selling their wares because it's corners were "too" rounded, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will have more use as a paper weight when compared to current models. *sigh*

Re: Pay up Apple!

2.6 million to keep an entire product line from hitting the shelves long enough for it to be obsolete? Sounds like a steal for Apple to me. Replace 'million' with 'billion', or add a few zeros to that number, and then they might actually care.

Re: Re: Correct, almost

I think you will find that paras. 6 & 7 of cited article bear out the reasoning behind my comment, tho' I can't fault your, or Mike's statement that Koh issued the injunction. Sorry if I was misleading.